An ultrasound system has become an important and popular diagnostic tool since it has a wide range of applications. Specifically, due to its non-invasive and non-destructive nature, the ultrasound system has been extensively used in the medical profession. Modern high-performance ultrasound systems and techniques are commonly used to produce two or three-dimensional diagnostic images of internal features of an object (e.g., human organs).
The ultrasound system transmits and receives ultrasound signals to and from a target object to thereby form a 2D (two-dimensional) ultrasound image or a 3D (three-dimensional) ultrasound image. Various techniques have been analyzed to enhance resolution of the ultrasound image. Spatial compounding is one of such techniques.
Spatial compounding is an imaging technique for forming a single compounding image by combining ultrasound images obtained from multiple points and angles. That is, the ultrasound system electronically steers scan-lines at different steering angles to thereby form a plurality of ultrasound images. The ultrasound system may then compound the ultrasound image to form an ultrasound spatial compound image.
Border lines of the ultrasound images are represented on the ultrasound spatial compound image. That is, a seam artifact occurs when the ultrasound spatial compound image is formed by compounding the ultrasound images. Thus, there is a problem in that the quality of the ultrasound spatial compound image becomes poor.